Holiday Inn Express & Suites Columbus East - Reynoldsburg by IHG — Hotel in Violet Township

I stay in Holiday Inn Express Hotels all over the US and have spent over 260 nights this year alone.

The Holiday Inn Express Columbus East Reynoldsburg was a true disappointment and embarrassment. I had assured my family that the “Upgrade construction” that was going on when we stayed there 2 years ago would be done and the place would be very nice, as they wanted to stay somewhere else. Well you made a fool of me.

My wife and daughter went to the room while I unloaded the vehicle, only to return a few minutes later with the report that the room has not been cleaned; the toilet was full, the bed was unmade, there were personal belongings in the room.

The lack of concern of the Desk Clerk did not instill confidence, but he did get us in another room. The condition of this room was subpar, but we had no choice at this point, as it was late evening the day before Christmas Eve.

At this point it is easier to list the issues with this room:

The duvet cover on the bed had holes up to 2 inches in diameter.

The Shower rod was falling down; it was curved, so the curtain kept sliding to the center.

The Toilet wouldn’t flush unless you held the handle down.

The ceiling had 2 large holes that had been patched, but not well and some of the patching had fallen out.

The filter in the Air Unit was thick with dust, I would say six months worth.

The couch looked like it had the original mattress in it from 20 years ago, with all the stains of several crazy parties and no bedding in the room.

o The bedding we got from the front desk had holes in the duvet cover as large as 2 feet across.

o The pull out bed was so bent and misused that we couldn’t get it to go flat; ended up just sleeping on it as a couch.

The Wi-Fi didn’t have Internet, as far as I could tell, the entire 4 days we were there and it also didn’t have a password or any kind of login.

I know that with COVID the whole breakfast thing has been difficult, but the other HI Express breakfasts far surpassed what was happening here and to add insult to injury, the person that we assume was taking care of the breakfast was “Pan-handling for Reviews” more than attending to the breakfast.

I will add two positive notes:

There is plenty of hot water and plenty of pressure.

There did not appear to be...

I booked a 2-night stay with Holiday Inn Express & Suites Columbus East - Reynoldsburg to attend a funeral 8+ hours away from my home. Unfortunately, on my way, my car broke down and I was stranded more than 3 hours from the hotel. When I called the hotel, the front desk person, Jesse, was sympathetic and understanding and offered me advice to help me work with hotels.com to cancel my reservation and get a refund for the booking. The next day, I was able to repair my car and finish the travel in time to check in for what would have been night #2 of my reservation, but since the hotel had cancelled it as requested, there was no reservation and I needed to re-book a room at the hotel upon arrival. Again, Jesse was helpful and gave me the lowest-cost booking available at the time, knowing that I was still working with hotels.com to get my refund, which hotels.com were refusing to give me, blaming the hotel and saying that the hotel refused to cancel the stay without penalty. Jesse gave me a business card for the hotel manager and insisted that I talk to hotels.com and ask them to call the hotel directly to work it out. As for the room, I really can't complain. I was a weary traveler and the room had hot water, clean sheets & towels, working air conditioner and heat, a small refrigerator, a large TV, plenty of outlets for charging my phone, and a nice king bed that I slept in soundly. I met some family at the hotel who did mention that their room was a little outdated and run down, and the breakfast options in the morning were spare, and my husband agreed that the breakfast was a little dried out and not appealing, but I didn't check that for myself. The coffee offerings in the room were plentiful and generous! The hotel is located in an area that has access to nearby gas stations, shopping, and restaurants. I'd stay here again because it's affordable and it provided me with everything I needed. Nearly a month after this trip, I finally got hotels.com to work with me to refund the stay that I was not able to complete, but not before I had to call Jesse once again and ask him for further help over the phone. The fact that he went out of his way to show kindness is what earns this hotel five...

Their indoor pool is MUCH too cold to swim in and they refuse to do anything about it.

I booked a stay here for my brother and sister on Oct 16th and 17th. I specifically booked this hotel because they advertised an indoor pool and I wanted to give my son the chance to swim while he saw his aunt and uncle. I even called a week before to make sure their pool was open. When we checked in on the 16th we went right to the pool but my son could only stay swimming for a few minutes because it was much too cold to swim. There were also three other boys who arrived but only stayed for a few minutes because of how cold it was. We went to the desk person and asked them if there was a problem. The person behind the desk seemed to care less. They said the thermostat read 86 degrees and suggested maybe it wasn’t the water but the air in the pool area that was cool? (So maybe turn up the heat in the pool area AND in the water?????). (maybe don[t just shrug your shoulders and do nothing else?) Anyway the desk person honestly could have cared less. We tried again on Saturday and still WAY too cold to swim, the temp outside was in the 50’s so there is no reason it should have been that cold.

I would have never booked this hotel if I knew the pool was too cold to use. There was another IHG property by the airport that was much less expensive but didn’t have a pool. I wish I would have booked that one!

I did reach out to the hotel and send them an email through the IGH website on two separate occasions asking them to address my concerns and on both occasions I never received a response from the Hotel. I did finally receive a response from the IHG parent company apologizing for the hotel ignoring my concerns.

There are all kinds of signs and notes in the hotel and rooms letting guests know they should bring any concerns to the attention of the staff. Obviously this is just lip service and they really don’t care. I’m sure they will post some kind of canned “we’re sorry” response to this review, but just to be clear, their actions in no way indicate they actually care or would do anything to assist their guests. After all I was ignored three times… I would have never written this review had they acknowledged...